35 Swedish films to 63rd Nordic Film Days Lübeck

Siw Malmkvist in the musical film Forelsket i København. (1960). Photo:Erben/Bygholm

The 63rd Nordic Film Days Lübeck event (Nordische Filmtage in Lübeck) starts tomorrow, and a wide range of Swedish films will be presented to the North-German audience. Nordic Film Days is one of the most important festivals for Swedish film in Germany, screening 35 Swedish films and co-productions in total. The festival also has as a special guest the Swedish singer Siw Malmkvist, who is very popular in Germany.

The film Pride and Prejudice – Swedish Queer Film by Eva Beling will have its European première at the festival. It is a documentary on the depiction of homosexual, bisexual and transpersons in 100 years of Swedish film history, from films by Mauritz Stiller, Ingmar Bergman and Mai Zetterling to the present day. The documentary contains a large number of film clips, along with interviews with Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson, Nils Warnecke, Bruce La Bruce, Andrea Weiss and many more. 

The 100-year-old silent movie The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar (Vallfarten till Kevlaar) by Ivan Hedqvist will be shown in the medieval church of St. Jakobi, accompanied by organ, choir and orchestra. Based on a poem by 19th century German poet Heinrich Heine, the film is one of the artistically most ambitious works from the Golden Age of Swedish film, and has attracted particular interest in Germany since it was digitally restored. The Swedish Film Institute’s Film Archivist Magnus Rosborn will introduce the screening, and at Museum Behnhaus he will give a more detailed lecture on how the film came about and its restoration. The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar is part of the festival’s retrospective, which will also screen several internationally acclaimed Swedish titles, including Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället, 1957) and Lasse Hallström’s ABBA – The Movie (1977).

Siw Malmkvist is also appearing as a special guest at this year’s festival. Sixty years ago, she played the lead role in the Danish musical film Forelsket i København. As well as the Nordics, the film was hugely popular in Germany in the early 1960s, and will now be screened in a digitally restored version. With more than 100 songs recorded in German over 50 years, Siw Malmkvist is one of Sweden’s most prominent and best-known musical exports to Germany. Siw Malmkvist was also the first Swede ever to reach the US Billboard charts (in 1964 with Sole Sole Sole alongside with Umberto Marcato). 

Other Swedish films and co-productions to screen at the 63rd Lübeck Nordic Film Days:

Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure, Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s Clara Sola – selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2020 and 2021 respectively; the documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World (Världens vackraste pojke) – about Björn Andrésen from Visconti’s Death in Venice – by Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri; and the acclaimed award-winning documentary Sabaya by Hogir Hirori. The latter two were selected for this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Screenings for a younger audience include the animated film The Ape Star (Apstjärnan) by Linda Hambäck, Caroline Cowan’s Eva & Adam, and Amanda Adolfsson’s Nelly Rapp Monster Agent (Nelly Rapp – monsteragent).

The festival runs 3–7 November.

For further information and a full list of Swedish films at the Lübeck Nordic Film Days, go to: >>